Fuse housing



Sept. 19, 1961 W- C. POWER ET AL FUSE HOUSING Filed July 15, 1956 Fig/2 Walter CPower Ellzs Barrell IN VEN TORY United States Patent 3,000,310 FUSE HOUSING Walter C. Power and Ellis Burrell, Rochester, N.Y., as-

signors, by mesne assignments, to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy Filed July 13, 1956, Ser. No. 597,830 1 Claim. (Cl. 102-70) This invention relates to fuses and more particularly to a fuse housing for a proximity type of fuse.

As known by those skilled in the art, the known proximity fuses are expensive to manufacture because of their complexity and requiring numerous costly parts. The present invention resulted from an attempt to reduce the unit cost of the proximity fuse by simplifying the fuse assembly and by integrating where possible the parts of the fuse housing into a single unit.

In accordance therewith, the fuse housing of our invention comprises a unitary body member combining the separate sleeve and insert of the prior art fuses, and a plastic nose mounted on the housing by means of a crim-ped-over annular metal ring which is molded into the nose. The housing is provided with a central longitudinal bore of uniform diameter for receiving the components of the proximity fuse.

The primary object of the present invention is therefore to provide a fuse housing comprising a unitary body member having a longitudinal bore for receiving the fuse components, and a plastic nose member rigidly mounted on the body member for enclosing one end thereof, the other end of the body member being open to permit the insertion and assembly of the fuse components in the bore.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a fuse housing which is inexpensive to manufacture and which permits the rapid assembly or disassembly of the fuse components in the housing.

Other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description with reference to the drawings in which like characters denote like parts and wherein;

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a fuse housing of our invention; and

FIG. 2 is an exploded view illustrating the fuse housing of our invention and the components of a fuse receivable therein.

The fuse housing of our invention is shown in cross section in FIG. 1 and comprises a metal body member 11 which is formed with a centrally positioned longitudi nal bore 13, a nose 15 formed from a suitable plastic such as, for example, a styrene copolymer, and an an nular metal ring 17. Ring 17 is molded in the end face of nose 15 during the forming of the nose and is rigidly mounted on the forward end of the body member 11 by crimping the ring 17 over the annular flange 19 formed in the bore 13. A key 21 is provided in the bore 13 for engaging and preventing rotation of the fuse components positioned within the bore 13. The external threads 23 adjacent an annular shoulder 25 on body member 11 permit the fuse housing to be assembled on the end of the missile housing M for which it has been designed with the annular shoulder 25 in abutment with the annular shoulder provided on the missile housing M. The open end of bore 13 is provided with internal threads 27 for engaging means for retaining the fuse components within the fuse housing.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 the fuse components comprise the oscillator assembly 29 including positioning washer 31, the amplifier assembly 33, the reserve energizer 35, the rear fitting 37, the holding ring 39, the booster assembly 41 including the booster pellet 43 and the booster Patented Sept. 19, 1961 cup 45, the water-proof washer'47, and the retaining ring 49. The oscillator assembly 29 is' formed with a keyway 51 for receiving'the key 21. 7 Thus when the completely assembled capsule including the oscillator assembly 29, the amplifier assembly 33 andthe reserve energizer 35 are inserted into the bore 13 of the body member 11, the engagement of key 21 in the keyway 51 prevents rotational movement between'the housing and the capsule during launching of't-he missile. The remaining "components of the fuse can also be inserted and retained in the bore 13 by means of the holding and retaining rings 39 and 49 respectively, as is obvious from the illustration of FIG. 1. The stud 53 is threaded into the body member 11 and engages electrical contacts carried on the reserve energizer 35. By disengaging these electrical contacts the circuit within the fuse between the self-destruction switch not shown, and the reserve energizer 35, is opened, thus permitting the self-destruction feature of the fuse to be eliminated as is desired when the missile is to be fired in field artillery for terrestrial use. It should be understood that the circuits and the operation of the various fuse components do not form a part of the present invention and for this reason have not been further elaborated upon here.

One of the primary advantages of the fuse housing of the present invention is its relative simplicity which permits an appreciable cost reduction to be realized in the assembled fuse. The fact that the fully assembled capsule can be inserted into the fuse housing from the rear of the longitudinal bore 13, also permits a saving to be realized in the assembling costs of the fuse. The assembly, as illustrated, eliminates the need for top potting, stack measurement and stack washers to compensate for tolerance build-up, as was required with the fuses of the known prior art. With the fuse housing of the present invention the capsule is properly centered and positioned in the nose 15 by means of the washer 31 and is supported and retained within the housing by means of rings 39 and 49. Since reworking of the production fuses is sometimes required, another saving with the fuse housing of our invention is realized from the fact that it is practical and readily possible to disassemble the entire fuse without destroying any of the costly fuse components. The disassembly is accomplished by merely removing the rings 39 and 49 which permit the capsule to be removed from the fuse housing.

While only one embodiment of the fuse housing of our invention is shown, many modifications are possible and will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description which is intended, therefore, to be illustrative only and the scope of the invention is defined in the appended claim.

Having now particularly defined our invention what we desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States and what we claim is:

A fuse housing comprising a unitary elongated body member having a single longitudinal bore of uniform diameter extending throughout the length of said body member, an annular flange formed on the peripheral wall of said bore adjacent one end of said body member, a hollow tapered nose member, means comprising a continuous sheet metal ring solidly imbedded on one end in said nose member and the other end thereof having an annular flange in abutment with the inner face of said annular flange in said bore for rigidly mounting said nose member on said one end of said body member with the hollow portion of said nose member in aligned communication with said bore, an external annular shoulder provided between said one end of said body member and the other end thereof for abutting a missile housing, said other end of said body member adjacent said shoulder being externally threaded for threaded attachment to said missile, said other end of said bore being open to permit the insertion of the components of a fuse into said bore of said body member and into said hollow portion of said nose member, internal threads provided on said other end of said bore for retaining the fuse components within said body member, said internal threads and said external threads being positioned on said body member in axial non-overlapping relation, and key means formed in the peripheral wall of said bore adjacent said annular flange on said peripheral wall for engagement with said fuse components to prevent rotational movement thereof with respect to said body member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES Navy Proximity Fuse, page 104, Electronic Industries, November 1945. 

